NV4500 Manual Swap into my 4-dr Tahoe

[MIHELA]

95 with a manual trans uses the old style 160 baud computer. You might just want to see about getting your computer reflashed instead.

 

[Green95Hoe]

Thanks for the tip. I fired off an email to Brian at TBIChips to see what he can do for me. I was originally using him to tune my 383 but he wasnt able to get my fuel/timing tables dialed in. Hopefully he can handle just changing the tranny setting. lol

 

[Green95Hoe]

Ok time for a little update. I managed to get some time this weekend and I was excited to start putting things in but came to a screeching halt immediately. Turns out the Flywheel I bought is for a 2 piece rear main and not compatible. The crankshaft bolt hole offset is larger than the one piece rear main crank end. Sucks because I bought that flywheel off ebay a month ago so im pretty much stuck with it. Its also a heavy **** so I dont want to ship it. Guess ill try to craigslist it and maybe craigslist the 454 flywheel that came with my tranny also. Today I went down to my trusty machine shop fella today to order the correct one which I should have done in the first place. While chit chatting I mentioned I was looking for the older style front driveshaft and he reached up over a shelf and hands me one for free! Excellent. It may be a 3/4 ton shaft though and if so im hoping I can just use the #447 adaptive ujoint for going from 1/2 ton to 3/4 ton.

As for the chip, I sent it back to TBI chips and he is going to change the values to Manual Transmission for me. I also asked him to hike up the max RPM's while he has it since my 383 is capable of a little more over stock.

Probably wont be able to do anything else with the tranny till the weekend as im still waiting on misc parts. I have to go back to the salvage yard where my donor truck was and get the plug for the neutral safety switch that I forgot. It will be necessary to re-route the odl neitral safety switch wires from where the auto tranny range switch was all the way up to the clutch pedal switch. At first I was just going to splice these together but then I started thinking about that one day a friend goes to move my truck and forgets to depress the clutch before turning the key. With that granny gear shed surely fire right up and plow into my garage. I still havent figured out what wires make the reverse lights work yet. The schematic shows a pink going into the switch and a green going to the lights. With the key ON I tried crossing them but I didnt get the reverse lights.Ill figure it out eventually.

All was not lost this weekend though. I did manage to get the pilot bushing in. The method I used was to do a quick once over with emory cloth on the inside of the crank to get the rust out while the pilot bushing sat in my freezer. When it came time to drive it in, I used an old input shaft that my father had from his 56 chevy. Couldnt imagine a better tool to drive the bushing in then with an actual input shaft. Went in nice and snug with a dead blow hammer.

 

[RSTahoe99]

keep the updates coming. got any pics of recent updates?

 

[Mike]

Nice guy, good to see you doin work!

 

[Green95Hoe]

Couple quick pics

Old and new trannys among a bunch of other parts. The current mess in my garage.

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The Interior with the new pedal installed.

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Old Flexplate and new "2 piece" Flywheel showing the difference in size at the crank holes.

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[Green95Hoe]

time for another update after a productive weekend. The correct flywheel and new chip came in last week.
I got alot accomplished today but ran into quite a few issues I wasnt expecting. The challenge of getting the tranny up into position was difficult as I was doing it in the dirt. Its alot of weight to try and wiggle into the pilot bushing and the shifter stub was making things difficult even with a 4" body lift. The t-case was instantly a problem because I thought I had a 32 spling input version but it turned out I didnt. The worst thing is I sold another one I had already mated to a 4500 4 days ago to a friend. Although he is converting up from a 3500 so I think his existing T-case will already mate to the 4500. If I can confirm that I might be able to get it back from him. Ok so what else did I encounter? Well the wiring was pretty simple. The 2 biggest wires on the range switch harness I just spliced together. Ultimately ill send those wires up to the pedal switch for the neutral safety start but I need to get a couple things first. The reverse lights were simple. I just spliced into the green and pink wires in the existing range switch harness. Be aware that there are 2 green wires in that harness. I think one might have had a yellow stripe but things were dark down there. Another issue ive encountered is that the truck has a 4" body lift so the shifter is much lower than it should be. When I shift into the two lower gears the shaft hits the console slightly. It seems if I put a 1/2" spacer between the tranny and tranny mount, the shifter will clear the dash and console fine. Also years ago I permanently affixed a Hurst T-handle to the floor shifter. The new shifter rod is hitting the lower handle and generally is seems like low and first are closer to my leg than it should be. Since I have to extend the shifter, im going to attempt to do it under the boot and my extension piece will have a slight bend in it to get everything in the right place. I also noticed that the shift tower doesnt quite come up in the center of the floor opening. Its over an inch to the left even though everythng is perfectly aligned underneath. I think when I put the boot on its going to look hacked and I cant move the boot to the left because of the t-case shifter cover.

Also my clutch seems like its not completely engaging. We bled the system many times but the pedal just feels very weird. Pedal goes to the floor but feels like it needs to go more. Also the pedal does not return to the same elevation as the brake pedal. Its almost an inch lower. The return position was fine until I connected the master cylinder rod. I have heard of adjustable rods for the pedal that would allow me to engage the piston further. Might have to look into that.

Either was I was able to at least start the truck today and pretend I was bangin gears. I sent my chip to TBIChips and had them set it up for manual settings for me. Everything seems to be fine because there was no check engine light while it was running.

 

[noremac]

figures... i just spent 850 getting mine rebuilt with a mild shift kit............ wish i would have known about this about 2 weeks ago....


build looks sick, and will definitely be one off.. finish it and lets see the results!

 

[Phil]

Whats to become of your old console?

 

[Green95Hoe]

The old console is long gone. I moved the crucial switches back to the dash plate.

Ok so here is the next update. There were alot of stupid bugs to work out. I managed to track down metric bolts and fab up a bracket to relocate the shifter into the best position. It was necessary to move it so that it had an inch of clearance from the dash, console, floor shifter and the cup holder at all times. I think I have it perfect right now. Since I know the offset and rise of the bracket, I can have my machine shop make a Z-Bar more professionally.

I ran into problems getting the clutch to disengage all the way. After some head scratching and research I found that the master cylinder pushrod was nearly 3/16" longer in the model year 95. Also the rod used one less washer and a thinner nylon lock washer so there was almost 5/16" more engagement. It took care of the problems I was having getting it into gear from a stop and put the clutch pedal at the same elevation as the brake pedal.

Once all the stupid things were taken care of it was out the driveway and down the street. I made it 100 feet down the road before I found a nasty grind going into third. I drove it around for a while. Did the double clutch thing but third was just awful. This is not common at all for these trannys unless someone runs the wrong fluid. Even then it would toss all the synchros together. I was pretty convinced the synchro was shot so I took out some frustration at the gym and decided id have to take it back out. Luckily it only took an hour to drop because I was able to leave the bellhousing on the engine. I pulled the cover and instantly got a peek at the trashed third gear synchronizer ring. I ordered up a rebuild kit and it should be here the middle of this week. This is going to be a fun little project rebuilding this thing, but im sure its well within my capabilities. Once complete, it will swap back in place in about an hour. I will also be able to say that I personally rebuilt every part of my drivetrain.

One other thing, the granny low on this thing is intense. Ill probably rarely use it on normal street driving. Coupled with the T-case in low range, the crawl is incredible. I can actually put it into first gear without the clutch and the truck crawls so slow that I jumped out, stood still and I was still moving faster than the truck. The granny gear is going to come in very handy for me.